the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

9 November to 21 December 2009. November 9 to 20. First birthday in Davao in 14 years. November 21 to 22. Joint birthday trip to Puerto Galera with Jemi. November 23 to 26. East Asian Seas Congress, Manila. November 26 to December 19. Dumaguete, thesis research and Philippine leg with Rich. December 19 to 20. Alabang with Baculios.

31 December 2006. A fitting end to mark the year when I rediscovered Davao's reefs. Second time in Aundanao, where we went camping in 2005 , but first time to go to Big and Small Ligid Islands, or even see that side of Davao Gulf. The best I've seen in Mindanao yet.

October 25, 2006 - Off Samal Island. Only three days since I arrived from New York, with a slight headache from jetlag, and I was itching to use my new diving gear. I called the dive shop (082-305-DIVE) when I got home at 3 p.m. from some errands and learned that there was a night dive that night, meeting time at 4 p.m. To dive or not to dive? Not too hard to answer, headaches notwithstanding. This dive, my last one in Davao before I move to Dumaguete next week, was also one with many firsts: 1) first night dive in Davao 2) first time to dive with my very own wetsuit and dive computer =D 3) first time to do underwater night photography =D It was hard, I tell you, especially since my last night dive was more than a year ago. Plus, only had a puny Eveready flashlight to illuminate the darkness. Hard to shoot holding both a flashlight and a camera. Fortunately, one of my buddies, Dave, had a $750-super-bright rechargeable LED light strong enough for me to shoot without a flash, and at de...

August 26, 2006 - Marissa 3 and Diaz Wall, Off Samal Island. It was Jo's graduation dive for his Open Water Diver certification, and Papa's birthday the next day, so all three of us showed up at the dive shop again to get more entries for our dive log and have Papa try diving for the first time. Finally saw the rare pygmy seahorses that I didn't get to see last time , plus some other micro stuff. Of course, with all my focus on getting good macro shots of the micro stuff, I got separated from the others with almost no air and practically non-existent visibility at nearly a hundred feet. Fortunately, I wasn't too high on nitrogen to remember how to ascend properly (didn't remember the safety stop, though, because didn't have a watch). At the surface, I discovered the others weren't too far off, after all. All's well that ends well =P BUt definitely need to be less autistic in photography next time. After that, I started memorizing the taxonomy of all the...

In the spirit of the Kadayawan Festival (photos of which i'll post later on after i'm done with this backlog =P), some reasons this island is called the Land of Promise. Photos from my travels around Mindanao in the last month--Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, Davao del Sur, and Kidapawan in North Cotabato. Also explains why I've been getting fat the past month. Unfortunately, can't find the pix of the gigantic apple-mangoes from Bukidnon, and the cute bananas growing in our backyard :-/ *everything taken as is. nothing rearranged to fit the picture. truth is beautiful ;-)

August 9, 2006. It was a dark and stormy day.... But we got on a boat, anyway, and went diving at Mansud Wall. Wanted my brothers who were in town from the States to do their intro dives. I had a couple of firsts on that dive, too: 1) First time to dive in Davao again since I took my diving lessons 5 years ago. This time, none of the OC-ness of a newbie, and wearing my usual, stripped-down diving attire—BCD, regulator, tank, mask & snorkel, full-foot fins (no bulky booties), two weights (no cumbersome belt), shirt & shorts (no suffocating suit). 2) First time to dive alone (since the divemaster was with my brothers). Although I only went down to 25 ft by myself, since my main concern was taking good pictures, and visibility was only good till that depth. (I figured it was ok, anyway, since I can skin dive to around 30 ft, and nothing happens to me hehe. But kids, don’t do this at home.) 3) First time to go island-hopping in Davao with waves so big, the wharf got flooded! Also ...

July 22 and 29, 2006. Finally got the camera and underwater casing I ordered on the net! And so of course, the first two weekends found me at the beach. Still not time to dive, since I was only free in the afternoons, but this is what I got snorkeling/ skindiving in Samal Island, across Davao. As you can see it's just as good above as below =D can't wait to go diving and standing under a waterfall. Or rain! All the possibilities.... Here are my first shots, no post-shoot editing.

July 23, 2006. Now I remember why we could spend a whole day in the water when we were kids--and white sand beaches in Samal Island weren't even in fashion then. All we needed to do was drive five minutes, or fifteen, or thirty, depending on how far we wanted to go, and ride the waves. Second day of my underwater casing =D

even at P150-180/kg, people still buy durian, locals and tourists alike. some more photos from my day with howie severino and the i-Witness team . catch the show on June 26, 2006 after midnight on GMA-7.

June 13, 2006. One of the things I've always wanted to do (and still hope to do) is make environmental documentaries . So when someone told me that multi-awarded environmental journalist Howie Severino was looking for a researcher on his I-Witness team, I emailed him asking if it was true. He said no, they weren't, but advised me to go to Manila and take the GMA exam, saying the Public Affairs department always needs people. That was in March. In the meantime, lots of things have happened, my plans in life have evolved and become more definite (to be explained in a journal entry...soon, i hope), and eventually I decided that I don't want to start a career in media just yet. Still, being the mentor that I believe Howie is at heart (who's always on the lookout for people to encourage to go into communication that matters), he asked if I wanted to come along on their shoot in Davao. Before 2pm, I was at a fruit stand at Magsaysay Park waiting for the van with the i-Witn...

December 29, 2005. Last November we rode the habal-habal up and down the hills of Samal Island to camp out at the cove in Canibad (photos to be uploaded soon). This Christmas, Papa, Josrique and I took on the rapids (Class 1 to 3) covering 13km of the Davao River in Calinan with my high school classmates Vannie, Christian and Mervin. Book your own adventure at the Crocodile Park! (082-3012020 -- although i didn't get a discount =P)

DAY 3 and 4 in Davao - October 31-November 1, 2005. My apologies for this very overdue post. Anyway, brought my family along on this camping trip i'd been planning with my friend, fe-ritz, in samal, where she's from. Canibad is a sitio, a cove on the other side of the hill, facing Davao Oriental, so not a lot of tourists come here, because they usually stay on the Davao City side. Had to take a habal-habal, and then a short trek going down. It was really camping, because I didn't know there would be no electricity or running water. Or accommodations. Jo and Papa even took forever packing that morning because they kept arguing about what to bring and what not to bring. So here are the photos of the trip--by bus, ferry boat, and motorcycle. Have yet to write a feature on this. Coming up next: photos from my Zambales trip the other weekend (Feb 4-6). NOTE: the first part of this album was taken with a digital camera (when i firt got it), the second half with my manual SLR.

DAY 5 in Davao - November 2, 2005. Went to visit my lola's grave at the cemetery up the hill from our house. Brought a camera for the first time. It was a perfect afternoon: sunlight golden, clouds gray with rain for the evening, and a wind blowing through the vines that had grown over the peacefulness in the past year.

at the market, at the mall, visiting relatives.... just random shots to match the journal entry =)

  Unfortunately, I don't know who the author is. I've long been wanting to write an essay about not having a real language to call my own because I'm from davao (in manila i'm considered bisaya; in cebu i'm considered tagalog. that's why I write in English =P), but here's a piece that celebrates having ALL languages.   another typical davao conversation line na "bisaya" kuno (only cebuanos will realize what's wrong): moadto ka diri? mopalit man ko ug gulay sa palengke kay payat na kaayo ko.   and the funny thing is, people from other places who work or study in davao "bastardize" their own language and start talking the same way, too. Hahaha. It's infectious! (and don't forget the funny accent that comes with it that's neither tagalong nor bisaya =)   my thanks to cris for forwarding this. ka-sarap bitaw gyud magtira sa dabaw. lingaw gani masyado. worth it man talaga! mwehehehe    =============================   GALENGA ...

Pictures of our dogs at home in Davao. Just had the roll developed after my Boljoon trip .

first published as lost and found column#17 on April 9, 2005   The last day home after a vacation is always the most hopeless day of the year for me. Nine years living away from home, and I’m an expert in transience. Still my heart isn’t used to it.   The day before my departure, my heartbeat races twice as fast, I snap at everyone in the house, and I am lost, wandering inside my head like a wild tiger in a cage far away from the jungle. I lock myself in my room, or go out in the garden, so no one can find me. Already my mind is moving away, bracing itself for detachment in the next 24 hours.   In a fit of panic after Christmas, I told my father flatly: “I need to go shopping.” We drove out of the house in silence. But as the mall came into view, I decided I wanted to eat instead, on a restaurant on top of a hill. “Ok” was all he said. Then a few minutes later, “Do you mind if we stop by the cemetery first?”   I shook my head. I didn’t actually care where we...

AT home, at the mall, at the cemetery, at the airport... there's no stopping me! Still more things I'd do if i had a digital camera. Taken with my brother's SAMSUNG digi cam during my Davao vacation. (Imagine what I'd do with a video cam!)

Midnight snack at Farmer's Park, before going back to Cebu, right after night swimming at Punta Dumalag

Photos from our "island-hopping" in Davao, November 2, 2004.